50MW power plant approved for K-IV water project

KARACHI: The 25th meeting of public-private partnership policy board held under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday approved establishment of 50MW power station for K-IV water project in Karachi.

The other projects which under discussion in the board include livestock tagging project, Local Government’s theme park in Karachi, English medium schools project, wholesale dates market in Khairpur, and safety and security services at National Institute of Child Health (NICH).

The meeting was told that the government has decided to establish a 50 MWs power plant for Greater Karachi Bulk Supply (K-IV) project Phase-1 under public-private partnership mode at pumping station No.1 and 2 near Keenjhar Lake.

The chief minister said that K-IV project phase-I envisage bringing 260 million gallon per day (MGD) of water to Karachi city. He added that the project requires 50 MW of power to meet its energy needs, therefore it necessities the installation of a dedicated power station.

CM Sindh said that the plant is expected to be gas-fired and would have adequate back-up supply either on-site or through provision of power from local distribution company, and will supply supply power through transmission lines (132kv).

The PPP policy board approved the project development funding (PDF) for the project for private partner solicitation.

Theme park in Karachi, wholesale dates market in Khairpur approved

Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro told the meeting that Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has received an unsolicited proposal from a private group for the development of Karachi Theme and Safari Park at the existing facility of Safari Park.

The unsolicited proposal is based on the detailed technical, financial and legal studies for which the private group has engaged a leading firm. The policy board approved the project for investors solicitation under PPP mode.

Secretary Agriculture Sajid Jamal Abro told the meeting that annual production of dates in Khairpur is around 250,000 metric tones making it the single largest date producing district in the country.

He added that poor logistic and infrastructure facilities in Khairpur for wholesaling of dates have seriously restricted development of extremely high potential crop. The policy board approved to launch the project near Khairpur Special Economic Zone.

37 schools in Tharparker to be outsourced

Education secretary Iqbal Durani said that Tharparkar is ranked lowest district on the human development index, but recent developments in the energy sectorhave paved way for improvement by further expanding on health and education services which can greatly reduce inequality and poverty.

The meeting was told that the chief minister has directed to the education department to improve quality of education in Islamkot and Tharparkar by outsourcing the management of public schools to reputable organisations.

The meeting was informed that during the first phase a preliminary list of 37 public schools have been identified for outsourcing out of 498 existing schools in Islamkot, based on level of education, gender, availability of existing infrastructure and student enrolment.

These 37 schools constitute 7.4 percent of the total number of schools and represent 19.6 percent of the total enrolled students of Islamkot. The PPP policy board approved launching of the project under English Medium Organisations model as well as approved private partner solicitation under PPP mode.

The PPP policy board approved fresh procurement for operations of safety and security services at NICH. The meeting discussed the project of livestock tagging project and terminated it from the PPP mode. The chief minister directed Fisheries and Livestock department to include the project in the annual development projects.